Batwoman Gore on Canvas review S2 E5
OK, Batwoman gets maybe one more episode to go after Gore on Canvas before it gets dumped. I’m gonna need the writers to work through their grieving stage of Ruby Rose leaving before I check back in. Of course it might be fun to watch one more episode for the sole purpose of counting how many times Kate is mentioned.
As has become the norm for the series, everything is far more interesting when the focus is on Ryan. She’s got enough subplots to more than carry the show at this point from rekindling her romance with Angelique, dealing with the side effects of the Kryptonite bullet, her long-lasting apprehension of working with The Crows and feeling of inadequacy in filling Kate’s costume.
This was more development than the writers gave Kate, who at this point in the first season, was still writing letters to Bruce and just getting comfortable operating as a vigilante.
While Angelique might be Gotham’s least attentive lover, Ryan finally decided to get that nasty bullet wound looked at by her doctor roommate Mary.
To get some leads on Kate’s whereabouts on this mysterious island, Sophie proposes an alliance with Batwoman. Ryan isn’t interested in any kind of partnership, but with no leads Luke and Mary agree this is the way to go.
For all of Ryan’s reluctance it wasn’t like there was a better option although I wish Ryan would just come out and state finding Kate is low on her priority list.
It feels like both the writers and Luke/Jacob/Sophie and Mary are using Ryan to serve their own interests as opposed to devoting more time and energy on Ryan.
Jacob recruits one of Kate’s old classmates, Ethan (Lincoln Clauss), a player in the art field to help track down the “Jack Napier” painting. Turns out The Joker sprayed the guts of a victim onto a painting and the original had the location of the island Kate is on. This is so needlessly complicated.
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Alice tracks down Ocean (Nathan Owens), Safaya’s brother from another mother and Alice’s ex-lover though neither remembers this past thanks to some mind warping from Safaya. They only get glimpses of this connection when they touch. We’re spending a ton of time with Alice. That’s unusual for Batwoman, which so rarely showcases her…
Ryan goes vaguely undercover to try and steal the painting for The Crows, but the ninja-like Wolf Spider nabs it first. Wolf Spider is a competent enough fighter to hold off Batwoman, but learned his escape tactics from one Rickon Stark as he runs along in a straight line while two Crows pursue in a truck. Realizing they don’t need to use the taser, the Crow driver just clips Wolf Spider with the car to grab the painting for Sophie.
Few interesting things of note here: Ethan was the Wolf Spider, who was trying to help Kate out. Second, Ryan’s bullet wound actually stopped her from doing something. Ryan actually having some measure of vulnerability instantly makes her a more relatable hero than 97% of the CW Verse.
Sometimes it feels like the writers create the dialogue to get brownie points for being trendy using phrases and buzz words out of place. Easily the worst example is when Ryan asks Ethan for his pronoun preference when she’s walking away from him.
Ryan relating her encounter when Crows told her she’d be prettier if she smiled also seemed random. Mary mentioning the Crows using toxic masculinity to stop the Wolf Spider also didn’t quite fit. It’s not like by that point Wolf Spider hadn’t already established himself as a threat and it’s a little weird that Sophie would be all “off with their heads” for doing the job she wanted done.
Sophie tells Batwoman later that she’s trying to change the culture of The Crows, which just seems silly since they are just an anti-vigilante task force, right?
The Napier painting Ethan went through all the trouble to steal was a fake. The genuine article is in Ocean’s possession. Oh good. For a moment I was worried Alice’s storyline would lose some degree of importance.
Ryan’s wound is getting worse. It’s really unfortunate we’re not getting that crossover with Superman & Lois as it seems like that is the obvious payoff to this initial subplot. That team-up could have been a lot of fun too.
Gore on Canvas keeps playing the same hit song for this season of Batwoman. When the attention is on Ryan, it’s a solid and engaging show, but the lingering carry over characters and subplots from season 1 keep dragging it down.
Rating: 7 out of 10
Photo Credit: The CW
Want to catch up on Season 2? Check it out now on Amazon Prime Video.